Identity, Tradition and Gender: Rethinking the negotiated subjectivity of women in India’s North Eastern States

Abstract

Identity cannot be deciphered without delving into its derivative relationship with the social material and values in which it is situated. Social identities are predominantly rooted in customs, legal and institutional apparatuses configurations. Identity, thus, is a social construct and a product of institutional norms. Ethnic and gender identities are distinctively locational shaped through cultural norms that differentiate them from the others. Identities, nonetheless, have its own mechanisms to grow itself as a political body with distinct aspirations. Such aspirations are methodically constituted either through co-opting traditions, lineages, culture, or through conditions like the geographies and political episteme(s). The perplexing question is why the history of identities is bedridden with the story of disparaging representations, binaries, denials, and perennial disengagements. One such site is the story of gendered power relations, as it is replete with such deleterious conditions. The insignificance of women in the conception of societal systems, customs, and institutions of power indicates the need for a comprehensive deconstruction of stringent societal and customary norms and unravelling of the post-colonial legislative contradictions.